Lyman scores on the first three passes he catches for the Bears, who will try to prove last year's win over Trojans was no fluke.

There were concerns California might look past Oregon State on Saturday toward next week's top-10 showdown against No. 1 USC at the Coliseum.

Instead, Cal ran over, through and around Oregon State, 49-7, before a crowd of 36,003 at Reser Stadium.

The victory improved No. 10 Cal's record to 3-0 and the Golden Bears' national title prospects entering, dare we say, their most important game in modern history.

With No. 6 West Virginia and No. 7 Ohio State losing, Cal will probably move up to at least No. 8 in the Associated Press poll in advance of USC.

"They came to Cal to play at this level," third-year Golden Bear Coach Jeff Tedford said of his players.

The question now is which team should be more worried, Cal or USC?

USC is coming off a shaky, three-point win at Stanford and had a day off to observe the talents of Cal, which was supposed to be rusty after not having played in three weeks; the team's Sept. 16 game at Southern Mississippi was postponed because of Hurricane Ivan.

Instead, the down time allowed Cal to super-size its play book.

The Golden Bears set the tone early when freshman Marshawn Lynch returned the opening kickoff 79 yards, all but gift-wrapping an 11-yard scoring pass from Aaron Rodgers to Chase Lyman.

Oregon State answered with a touchdown on its first possession, and didn't score again.

Cal finished with 433 total yards and averaged 7.6 yards per play.

Lyman finished with five catches for 176 yards, scoring touchdowns on the first three passes he caught.

On the first play of the Golden Bears' second possession, Lyman raced 79 yards for a score after receiving a trick-play pass from tailback Terrell Williams.

Lyman would later score on a 31-yard pass from Rodgers to make it 21-7 in the first quarter.

Cal has now won six straight games for the first time since the 1990-91 seasons.